iOS (iPhone) and Android are the two most popular mobile platforms in the world today. If you’re looking to have an app developed or even if you are a developer, you may be asking this question:
Should I develop my apps for iOS or Android mobile devices?
In this article I will show you the top 3 reasons I think you should go with iOS first. Keep in mind, the choice is ultimately yours. Hopefully after reading this article you’ll understand why I choose to develop apps on iOS first.
3 Reasons Why You Should Develop Your App on iOS First
- Higher revenue
- Shorter times to develop than Android
- iOS has fewer operating system versions
Higher Revenue
In today’s app market, iOS continues to lead the way in terms of generating revenue. Revenue usually comes from app sales, in-app purchases, and through in-app advertising.
Many recent studies have shown that the average iOS user has more disposable income than the average Android user. The average iOS users make about $85,000 per year in the U.S. while the average Android user makes about $61,000 per year.
Over 40% of iOS users make more than $100,000 per year while less than 25% of Android users have an annual salary of $100,00.
Although iOS only holds 1/3 of the global market share and Android holds almost 2/3, iOS users spend over 80% more on in-app purchases than Android users.
Shorter Development Timeline
Building an Android app can take three times longer to build than an iOS app. The reasons why are:
- You would need to write approximately 40% more code on Android then you would need to write on iOS.
- The IDE (Integrated Development Environment) Apple provides for developing iOS application is a program designed to help you build other programs.
- Apple has one standard IDE called Xcode that is very fast and powerful. Xcode has a great user interface and a very intuitive shortcuts for building storyboards, templates and creating in-app controls.
- Xcode makes it easy to modify, compile, deploy and debug your apps.
- Android has many IDE’s with a variety of features that may lack important items needed for app development.
- There are six top IDE’s for Android development. These IDE’s are based on the developer’s preference and are not standard across the board.
iOS has fewer operating system versions
iOS has fewer OS (Operating System) versions which can reduce the cost, maintenance and updating of your app over time.
Android is an open-source operating system, whenever the most updated version is released, developers can make changes to the operating system to accommodate many different devices. This is a downside to an Android developer because the operating system may vary in different devices due to cell phone carrier needs.
The Android app you develop for your device, may not work correctly for another device made by another manufacturer or carrier due to the different versions of the latest OS.
Android operating system is fragmented meaning whatever current version of the operating system is released, there can be many more versions of that operating system.
Over 80% of iOS users are currently on the latest version of iOS. While less than 5% of Android users are on the latest version of Android. Another great stat is that almost 40% of iOS users update their OS during the first month it is launched.
Things to Remember
- iOS users typically have higher income
- Users are more engaged
- iOS users spend more money purchasing apps
When developing your app on the iOS platform you can expect that users are more likely to spend money to buy your app.
The bottom line is that an iOS app built correctly with a great marketing strategy earns more revenue.
If you are an app developer, you can focus on supporting the newest version of the operating system and can be certain that your application will work on the majority of iOS mobile devices.
Lastly, don’t forget that iOS dominates the mobile tablet market, which is another market you can develop apps for. In certain cases an iPhone app may be used on an iPad even though it’s best practice to create a native application for both iPhone and iPad.
I hope this article was helpful in your decision. Let me know what your experience has been with both Apple and Android.
Let’s make great things happen!
Handy
